Rights of wetlands shifts the people-wetlands relationship towards one recognizing the intrinsic rights and living beingness of wetlands, embodying reciprocity, kinship, and gratitude. Recognition of wetland rights occurs within the broader Rights of Nature movement, which has often been led by Indigenous Peoples and local communities from many cultural traditions. Intrinsic wetland rights centre on the right to exist and incorporate seven other rights, forming a holistic framework that enables preservation of wetland ecosystem integrity. These rights provide the basis for a wetland’s thriving existence. The eight rights are: • the right to exist. • their natural place in the landscape; • natural and connected hydrologic regimes; • natural climatic conditions; • naturally occurring biodiversity; • natural ecosystem processes; • natural water, soil, and air quality (i.e., structural integrity and form); and. • regeneration and a naturally determined future. Moral and ethical responsibilities towards these rights include fostering harmonious relationships in and with wetlands, respecting interdependence of all wetland components, safeguarding and fostering conditions enabling rights of wetlands, and acting in a precautionary manner when faced with risks of harm to wetlands. Legal and policy responsibilities include acknowledging plural worldviews, recognising legal standing and political orientations to represent and defend wetland rights, providing adequate means for wetland representation and defending and advocating for wetlands, and using best available science to restore degraded wetlands and support regeneration, thereby supporting harmonious societal relationships with wetlands. Opportunities for implementation of rights of wetlands at a variety of scales (individual, community, national, and global) are explored, and training/guidance resources are referenced.

Wetland conservation and restoration is an essential component of delivering the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) vision of a world living in harmony with nature where “by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.” This document supports the inclusion of ambitious wetland commitments and actions in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) as a pivotal way of boosting biodiversity, to achieve the goals of both the Convention on Wetlands and the KM-GBF. This report focuses on the critical role of wetlands in achieving the 23 targets of the KM-GBF by 2030. It provides guidance to Parties to the CBD on how to incorporate the role and importance of wetlands and key actions into their NBSAPs in relation to each target. It also provides Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands, with information on how to support delivery of the KM-GBF and achieve targets within the Fourth Strategic Plan of the Convention on Wetlands and the forthcoming Fifth Strategic Plan.

Indigenous Peoples, local communities and non-profit organizations have been leading a growing global “Rights of Nature” movement that reconsiders the human-Nature relationship and returns to a recognition of Nature’s living beingness and inherent rights (Kaufman and Martin 2021; https://celdf.org/rights-of-nature/ accessed 21 October 2023). These perspectives have been shared by many cultures and societies throughout history and continue to be the foundation beliefs of many communities. This alternative attitude moves the human-Nature relationship from one of exploitation, depletion, degradation and loss to one based on relational values such as reciprocity, gratitude, and respect. For the populations of modern nation states, this perspective constitutes a paradigm shift that may lead to greater success in achieving conservation goals and support for restoration, regeneration, and re-wilding initiatives that might implement the recently agreed Global Biodiversity Framework (https://www.cbd.int/gbf/ accessed 20 October 2023).

Este Informe Técnico fue preparado por el Grupo de Examen Científico y Técnico (GECT) de la Convención sobre los Humedales, como una tarea de alta prioridad del plan de trabajo del GECT 2023-2025 (Tarea 5.2) en respuesta a la Resolución XIV.6, Mejorando la visibilidad de la Convención y las sinergias con otros acuerdos ambientales multilaterales y otras instituciones internacionales y la Resolución XIV.14, Implementación futura de aspectos científicos y técnicos de la Convención para 2023-2025. Este Informe Técnico demuestra el papel crítico de los humedales en el logro de múltiples objetivos y metas del Marco Mundial de Biodiversidad de Kunming-Montreal (KM-GBF) y proporciona orientación sobre cómo los humedales deben ser incluidos en las estrategias y planes de acción nacionales en materia de biodiversidad (EPANB).

Ce rapport technique a été préparé par le Groupe d'évaluation scientifique et technique (GEST) de la Convention sur les zones humides, en tant que tâche prioritaire du plan de travail 2023-2025 du GEST (Tâche 5.2) en réponse à la Résolution XIV.6, Renforcer la visibilité de la Convention et les synergies avec d'autres accords environnementaux multilatéraux et d'autres institutions internationales et la Résolution XIV.14, Mise en œuvre future des aspects scientifiques et techniques de la Convention pour 2023-2025. Ce rapport technique démontre le rôle crucial des zones humides dans l'atteinte de multiples objectifs et cibles du Cadre mondial de la biodiversité de Kunming-Montréal (KM-GBF) et fournit des orientations sur la manière dont les zones humides devraient être incluses dans les Stratégies et plans d’action nationaux pour la biodiversité (SPANB).

This chapter defines ecosystem services and describes how the ecosystem service concept has evolved within the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and subsequent Resolutions. It discusses the values that different provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting wetland ecosystem services provide, and examines who, in society, receives the benefits from these services. Information is provided on currently available tools and techniques for assessing ecosystem services in terms of quantification, monetisation, or other forms of valuation. The chapter concludes by discussing how to bring ecosystem services into the mainstream of decision-making processes.

Wetlands worldwide are in trouble. Their area and condition have been, and are, in continuing decline. Through drainage and conversion to other land uses, the area of natural wetlands is decreasing, although the extent of losses is uncertain: since 1700 AD loss is likely to be less than 87% but more than 21%–36%. Although more wetlands are currently reported to be in good than poor ecological character state, more are deteriorating than improving in state, and deterioration is becoming increasingly widespread. There continue to be challenges in making quantitative assessments of wetland state and trends in state, including in defining baseline and reference conditions. Longer-term palaeoecological records can help separate change from variation, and inform establishing appropriate baselines for wetland assessment and management.

Wetlands are among the most productive natural ecosystems in the world, generally being important biodiversity hotspots. However, the complex nature of these landscapes together with the fragile and dynamic relationships among the organisms inhabiting these regions, make wetland ecosystems especially vulnerable to environmental disturbance, such as climate change. Thus, developing new automated systems which allow continuous monitoring and mapping of wetland dynamics is crucial for preserving their natural health. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems have proven useful in monitoring and mapping the hydrological processes of wetland ecosystems through the use of polarimetric change detection techniques. Nonetheless, most of these flood change detectors rely on static detection approaches, generally covering a limited period of time (e.g., pre and post flooding scenario comparison), thus failing in providing continuous information about the diverse hydrological mechanisms. In this context, this research presents a novel approach for monitoring the hydrological dynamics of wetlands in a continuous and near-real-time manner using dense Sentinel-1 image time-series. In this work, we have enhanced our recently developed algorithm based on cumulative sums (SAR-CUSUM), to include polarimetric information, which allows to classify the type of change due to the flood. The new processing stack exploits the polarimetric information of dual-pol Sentinel-1 dense time series for detecting floods and provide some separation between open water and flooded vegetation areas. The outcomes derived from this study emphasize the capabilities of dense SAR time-series for environmental monitoring while providing a useful tool which could be integrated into rapid response and wetland conservation management plans.

Wetlands are among the most productive natural ecosystems in the world, generally being important biodiversity hotspots. However, the complex nature of these landscapes together with the fragile and dynamic relationships among the organisms inhabiting these regions, make wetland ecosystems especially vulnerable to environmental disturbance, such as climate change. Thus, developing new automated systems which allow the continuous monitoring and mapping of wetland dynamics is crucial for informing decision-making and preserving their natural health. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors deployed on satellite platforms such as SENTINEL-1 are increasingly recognized as essential for wetland monitoring. The high sensitivity of SAR sensors to environmental variation makes them particularly suitable for investigating the hydrological processes occurring within these ecosystems.The main objective of this paper is to propose a rapid polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) change detection tool for monitoring and mapping the flood dynamics and environmental condition of the North Rupununi region, Guyana. By making use of dense Sentinel-1 timeseries data and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, we were able to map temporal open water and temporal flooded vegetation areas in a continuous and near-real time basis. The outcomes derived from this study significantly contributed to identify the hydrological mechanisms of the region of study while providing essential and valuable information for rapid response and environmental impact assessment.

The Ramsar Convention promotes the wise use of wetlands as a fundamental tenet behind the desire to stop and reverse the loss and degradation of wetlands. The concept of wise use has been formally defined as the maintenance of ecological character, of which ecosystem services form an integrated element. The Contracting Parties to the Convention submit formal National Reports (NRs) before the triennial Conference of Parties in order to report on progress towards implementation. The information contained in the National Reports submitted for the eleventh Conference of Parties (Bucharest, 2012) has been reviewed in order to assess progress made on understanding of and reporting on wetland ecosystem services. Notwithstanding concerns regarding the pedigree and utility of the information reported through the NRs, the review has demonstrated reporting on the benefits provided by Ramsar Sites is limited, that regional differences exist in the reporting on ecosystem services and that some ecosystem services are more frequently reported than others. Based on this evaluation recommendations for the future development of guidance for integrating assessment of wetland ecosystem services are proposed.

There is increasing advocacy for inclusive community-based approaches to environmental management, and growing evidence that involving communities improves the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Most community-based approaches rely on partnerships and knowledge exchange between communities, civil society organizations, and professionals such as practitioners and/or scientists. However, few models have actively integrated more horizontal knowledge exchange from community to community. We reflect on the transferability of community owned solutions between indigenous communities by exploring challenges and achievements of community peer-to-peer knowledge exchange as a way of empowering communities to face up to local environmental and social challenges. Using participatory visual methods, indigenous communities of the North Rupununi (Guyana) identified and documented their community owned solutions through films and photostories. Indigenous researchers from this community then shared their solutions with six other communities that faced similar challenges within Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, French Guiana, and Brazil. They were supported by in-country civil society organizations and academics. We analyzed the impact of the knowledge exchange through interviews, field reports, and observations. Our results show that indigenous community members were significantly more receptive to solutions emerging from, and communicated by, other indigenous peoples, and that this approach was a significant motivating force for galvanizing communities to make changes in their community. We identified a range of enabling factors, such as building capacity for a shared conceptual and technical understanding, that strengthens the exchange between communities and contributes to a lasting impact. With national and international policy-makers mobilizing significant financial resources for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, we argue that the promotion of community owned solutions through community peer-to-peer exchange may deliver more long-lasting, socially and ecologically integrated, and investment-effective strategies compared to top-down, expert led, and/or foreign-led initiatives.

The main aim of this handbook is to promote community owned solutions by proposing approaches that respond to current and future challenges to sustainability, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. The handbook introduces key concepts and techniques which underpin a participatory and systems approach to community engagement. It helps a community build up practical skills for exploring, recording and disseminating their own community owned solutions.

As natural-resource issues become more complex, particularly in developing-world contexts, there is a growing need for adaptive management solutions. However, the skills necessary to deal with these increasingly complex situations are not always present in many low-income countries. There is also a growing recognition that many capacity-building activities are limited in their effectiveness. This article suggests a problem-based learning (PBL) approach to capacity building. Using the example of training courses developed to help natural-resource management in Guyana, this article illustrates how PBL can help to enhance the capabilities needed for adaptive management.

Integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) are common place in the field of biodiversity conservation. However, there is little evidence in the wider literature on the successes of these projects, with failure attributed to a range of factors, including a bias on either conservation or development, weak assumptions and limited monitoring and evaluation. In this paper, we evaluate an ICDP in the North Rupununi district of Guyana. Using a systems viability approach, we show how assessing the project and the nested systems within which it is operating reveals numerous human and institutional capacity issues which could have been managed better if highlighted at the project development stage. We conclude with the proposal that a systems viability approach to ICDP development, monitoring and evaluation encourages greater learning and adaptive management processes for increasing the long-term impact of ICDPs.

In financially and human capacity poor countries, there is an important need to monitor the status of resource rich ecosystems in the face of growing extractive activities in simple and inexpensive ways. In this study we explore the potential of using birds as indicators of ecosystem change in the wetland systems of the North Rupununi, Guyana, where local communities rely heavily on wetland resources for their subsistence activities. This is done by (1) assessing what environmental factors determine bird communities at different spatial and temporal scales; and (2) identifying indicator groups and/or species for ecosystem status. We surveyed 31 wetland sites over 2 years, taking monthly recordings of both the environmental features of waterbodies using a modified version of the River Habitat Survey and bird species counts. Using multivariate analyses, we found that large-scale habitat type, namely forest and savanna, and waterbody type, namely pond or main river channel, were the main factors affecting bird species distribution. At the smaller scale, habitat features around the waterbody and seasonality become important factors. We were able to identify lists of bird species associated with different waterbody types, and we present this as a checklist for future monitoring. We hope these findings can be integrated into the adaptive management and sustainable livelihood goals of the local stakeholders through linking monitoring with tourism and local school curriculum activities.

To date, discussions on positionality and the relationship with research collaborators have been very much in the human geography realm. In this paper, we explore issues of expertise, positionality, collaboration and participation from our perspective as physical geographers working in a developing country context. We trace our journey from identifying ourselves as top‐down ‘experts’ to participatory ‘facilitators’, and the difficulties and dilemmas encountered during this journey as we coped with the contrasting challenges of academic demands and local necessities. Our experiences highlight the many assumptions we make about doing research in developing countries and the real lack of capacity in these places to undertake typical short‐term research projects designed in the developed world. We conclude with a call for a longer term and deeper commitment by physical geographers to the people that we engage with in our research.

The full significance of wetlands in conserving the quality of the natural environment has only been realised in recent times. Traditionally wetland ecosystems have been conserved for their 'naturalness' or their ability to maintain habitats for rare species. This policy has failed to stop the intensification of agriculture and increased urban development from destroying and degrading many of Europe's wetlands. To arrest this loss and degradation, criteria other than habitats or species have to be considered when evaluating the importance of wetlands. Wider societal values which wetlands may possess have also to be included in any planning and decision making. Recent shifts in policy such as the European Union Water Framework Directive reflect this, indicating a need for assessing the natural environment from a functional standpoint. Therefore, there is a need for wetland evaluation tools that provide decision support to help recognise the importance of wetlands and to help fulfil legislative requirements. This study has developed and tested a theoretical functional classification of European wetlands that is designed to contribute to this need. Classification development followed a hydrogeomorphic approach linking wetland type, categorised by climate, geographical position, geomorphic setting and hydrological character, with the potential functioning of the wetland. Testing of the functional classification has been undertaken through empirical studies at two separate levels; European level; and river catchment level. Testing indicated that the classification describes adequately the different wetlands tested and accurately predicts potential functioning at each of the wetland sites. The study demonstrates that geomorphic unit types, the key component of landscape zonation within the functional classification, perform the functions of floodwater retention and groundwater discharge to varying degrees and that landscape position effects the degree to which the two functions are performed. Testing of the geomorphic unit classification against other wetland environmental variables such as soil and vegetation indicate that within the field sites studied geomorphic unit type was a better predictor of the two hydrological functions.